Koibito
by Mina In Blue
Summary: Ritsuka is trying to move on after the horrible events last December, but will Seimei let him? Spoilers, up until the end of the manga volume 7.
1. koibito

_**Chou**_

A glance through razor glass,  
those deep pools of cobalt,  
whispered secrets of  
my past,  
one I would never remember.

With a touch and a  
butterfly kiss,  
he took away the last bit of my  
animalism,  
thieving it in the night,  
a marbled pickpocket,  
as someone had only  
six years previous  
to _him_.

We stood side-by-side,  
his jacket splayed out before him  
a silent flutter, lined  
like butterfly wings.

There was a long line of us  
standing breathless,  
our wings spanning out behind us,  
mosaics of stained glass,  
paper-thin and veined in black.

Holding onto,  
holding steady against it  
until the time past,  
and we were free to  
bleach in the sunlight,  
tasting strawberries,  
our lives lit colorful,  
filtered through the transparent  
beauty of a  
butterfly's wing.


	2. loveless

**This story contains spoilers. If you have not read the manga all the way through, reading this will spoil the ending for you. If you do not read Japanese, the final LOVELESS manga (volume 7) comes out in America on November 17th, 2007.**

* * *

**Preface: LOVELESS**

_LOVELESS. _Ritsuka frowned, running his fingers over the red letters. L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S. One without love. _What a name to be chained with..._

The letters spanned out painfully across his thin shoulders, carved in a deep red. Thin, black lines swirled around the word, forming long, translucent butterfly wings across his back. The whole design was lined in pink and ached terribly; he didn't mind the pain, since it was the small price for such a beautiful marking.

_For me, it's no more than formality of a fate I finally accepted. To fight and be fought, to be Loveless._

Soubi studied his own back in the mirror, his fingers running over the black lines he could reach; the blonde smiled even as his winced in pain from his own back. _For me, a formality. For him, it's a mark of ownership. I don't think I've ever seen him wear that particular expression before. _His cobalt eyes shimmered with a kind of gleefulness; Ritsuka knew by heart the false smiles he wore, that aching mask, but this was different, more open, his contentment stemming from his incurable addiction to dependence.

He'd been freed from Seimei, only to be chained to Ritsuka.

The prospect pleased Soubi far more than Ritsuka, but Soubi's codependency was something he'd also learned to accept. The tattoo was a great stride toward proving Ritsuka's submission to fate, finally creating the name he'd been, up until now, denied in a physical fashion.

"Are you happy now?" Ritsuka asked, rhetorically, trying not to itch his abused skin.

Soubi smiled at him, his eyes shining through the thin lenses of his glasses, before returning his attention to the mirror.

_Finally having a true Sacrifice probably made him the happiest masochist in the world. _Ritsuka smiled affectionately at the thought. _Being a fake for years must have been incredibly painful to him._

When Ritsuka turned his attention back to Soubi, he was touching his neck, the giddy smile wiped from his features as if it had never been.

"Soubi?"

_Seimei, why did you have to do this to him? _That ever-present sadness in Soubi was _his_ fault, Seimei's. The realization was still painful to Ritsuka.

"Soubi?" he repeated, gently, moving close enough to press his own fingers to the lingering scars on Soubi's neck. It had been more than a year and a half since Seimei "died," leaving Soubi to wallow in his silent despair. The scars of that time lingered, and not just the physical ones, giving endless depression and nightmares to the new Loveless _sentouki. _"Soubi, Seimei gave you this, didn't he?"

Ritsuka frowned as the older man nodded, his gaze cold and tired.

_Seimei, why? Knowing he was a stand-in, why did you have to give him a false name? _The spell that bound them together had been real enough, but the letters so painstakingly carved into the delicate skin of neck, those were a lie. _You knew what going against his "name" would feel like. It would bleed during battle, Seimei, not because he was going against the name BELOVED, but because he was going against _you.

Ritsuka tugged on his shoulders, and Soubi collapsed willingly into his arms. "I'm sorry, Soubi, for all he's taken from you. I'll make it up to you; I swear."

_This last year, it's broken him. _Ritsuka resettled himself on floor into a more comfortable position, embracing Soubi, careful not to touch the aching lines of new tattoo across his back. _But I'll put you back together; I'll _make_ Seimei atone for his sins._

_I swear it, Soubi._


	3. pointless

**Someone informed me that Volume 7 was not, in fact, the last volume. I haven't heard any rumors of a volume 8 (I wonder if it's even in production yet...). I hope to hell there will be a volume 8; seven's ending drove me crazy. Anyway, ending or not, this contains spoilers after volume seven. Enjoy.**

* * *

one: pointless

Dawn spilled over the edge of the windowsill, pink and orange fingers reaching across the sky, chasing away what remained of the darkness. The light did strange things to his surroundings, running rivulets of sherbet colors across everything in the room and dying Soubi's thick hair from blonde to a pastel coral. Ritsuka was amused by his _sentouki'_s sprawling pose, his arms thrown unceremoniously across the sheets. _Good damn thing we invested in a bigger bed; I'd wake up black and blue the way he tosses around at night were we on one of our twin-sized mattresses._

The younger boy kissed the sleeping form beside him (gently, so as not to wake him), then stood and stretched, rising out of habit with the sun; his first stop was the bathroom, washing his face and dunking his disheveled hair into the sink. He brushed his hair, wincing as the comb caught the tender skin under his right ear; he watched in the mirror as it flicked curiously of its own will, twitching and managing to look annoyed.

_Imagine, living with Soubi for almost a month, and I still have my ears, _Ritsuka rubbed at the sore ear distractedly, watching his face distort with emotion in the mirror. _Never trusted him; never had a reason to trust him. But he's proven to be more virtuous then I'd imagined. _The thought made him smile ironically. _I'd have given these a long time ago, if he'd ever offered._

But Ritsuka worried about pushing his _sentouki; _Soubi would follow orders regardless of whether he wanted to or not. _Oh the irony... I cannot ask him; even if he seemed to say yes of his own accord, it would still smack of rape._

He looked tired, even to himself, his lively black hair grayish and waning. _Not that this last month has been exactly conducive to rest. Nothing has gone right, since Seimei returned..._

_Nothing's been right since Mother died._

Soubi was his official guardian now, since Ritsuka's father left for work one day two months ago and never returned. _Just my luck too. Two hours after Mother's wake, an eviction notice shows up at house; bastard stopped paying the rent. I guess he stopped caring._

Soubi had been more than willing to not only take Ritsuka in, but to move into a larger apartment to accommodate the two of them. Since then, he'd taken small, side jobs on Sundays to help pay the rent; Ritsuka had learned early that Soubi made quite a bit of money off of the paintings he sold, but he still wanted to donate something to the upkeep of their shared living space.

_A whole year since Seimei "returned from the dead," and he's done nothing but ruin both our lives. _Through the open bathroom door, Ritsuka could still see his sleeping roommate, who had stretched over onto his side of the bed._ Popping up out of nowhere, driving Mother crazy... Where did the Seimei I loved go? _A small part of Ritsuka blamed Seimei for her death; Mother had always like Seimei more. Seeing him "alive" all the sudden again... well, she had never been quite right to begin with...

He muddled over that for a moment, alternately hating Seimei then feeling guilty for it. He pulled on some clothes: jeans and a button down with his favorite jacket, carefully dressing to avoid irritating the abused skin of his back. A smile came to his lips, poking its way through his sour mood as he pulled his shoes on. _That poor tattoo artist had no idea what to think of the two of us, getting matching tattoos like a couple. _The air was still incredibly cold as Ritsuka stepped outside, his chuckle puffing into the wintry, post-dawn.

It would be a short walk to the market, and Ritsuka could lose himself in the morning bustle of the crowds; since school was out for the month, he had little else to do. Either that or watch Soubi sleep. _Not that I haven't spent any time doing that, _Ritsuka thought, nodded at a vaguely familiar woman who waved in his direction; _the way he mumbles in his dreams is so amusing._

_A side of him Seimei probably never saw._

_Seimei..._

Ritsuka tried to turn his mind away from his brother, and back to the present, trying very hard not to ponder over the future. Trying not to remember...

_Even if I try to forget, you are always around to haunt me, aren't you, Seimei? Trying to forget, it's so pointless. _He mulled over the purchase of some fresh fruit, picking through a stand thick with red apples.

"Oba-san, how much for these?" Ritsuka pulled out his frighteningly thin wallet, sifting through the coins there after the old woman mumbled the price. _Too much. Everything is so expensive..._

"He'll take the batch, Oba-san." A hand slammed down three bills onto the wooden stand, shaking Ritsuka's carefully constructed calm. A vague, familiar face grinned wolfishly, grabbing the bundle of apples and Ritsuka's hand in the same moment, shouting something inaudible to the woman at the fruit stand.

"Let go of me, you freak!" Ritsuka pulled his hand from Nisei's, wrenching the older man around to face him with the movement. They'd run past most of the market, and into the beginnings of a small park.

Nisei was closer to Seimei's age (he was what, eighteen now?), and he stood taller than Ritsuka, his lengthy black hair thin and running down his shoulders like a midnight waterfall. Secretly, Ritsuka thought he was beautiful. He fair glowed with the cold, his cheeks reddened and his smile glittering in the depths of his eyes.

Ritsuka wrenched the apples from Nisei's fingers, "What the hell do you want now?"

_Dammit! Why can't they just leave Soubi and I alone? _

"I'm not going to fight with you, Loveless. I merely have a request." The older boy's voice was deep, belying his soft, boyish features. "Just a quick question."

"I don't owe you anything." Ritsuka turned on his heel, heading back where he'd come.

The hand that settled on his shoulder was gentle, unrestricting. "Fine, then; a gift." Nisei shoved an envelope into Ritsuka's jacket, smiling, sliding his hands over Ritsuka's shoulders. "Good day!"

He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and frowned at it, watching as the shimmering black hair disappeared around the corner. _Just what I needed... _Ritsuka fiddled with the paper before returning it to his pocket, continuing slowly on the road back home, the long line of his tail twitching angrily in time with his steps.


End file.
